SAP-C02 Practice Question: Accelerate Workload Migration and Modernization
A company is migrating a legacy Java application to AWS. The application currently runs on a single on-premises server and uses a MySQL database. The company wants to modernize the application by decoupling components and improving scalability. Which THREE steps should the architect include in the migration plan?
⚠ Common exam trap
SAP-C02 often tests whether candidates recognize that modernization should be incremental and decoupled — options that propose a single big-bang rewrite or vertical scaling are almost always distractors.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Place an Application Load Balancer in front of the application
Option B is correct because placing an Application Load Balancer (ALB) in front of the application enables horizontal scaling, health checks, and distribution of traffic across multiple targets, which directly supports the goal of improving scalability and decoupling the entry point from the compute layer. Option C is correct because refactoring the monolith into microservices deployed on Amazon ECS with Fargate decouples components, allows independent scaling per service, and removes server management overhead, aligning with the modernization objective. Option E is correct because migrating the MySQL database to Amazon RDS for MySQL preserves compatibility with the existing relational schema while offloading patching, backups, and Multi-AZ high availability to AWS, improving scalability and resilience. Option A does not belong because rewriting to a NoSQL database in a single migration step is risky, unnecessary for a MySQL-based app, and contradicts an incremental modernization approach. Option D does not belong because deploying on a single larger EC2 instance is vertical scaling that keeps the application monolithic and does not decouple components or improve scalability.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Rewrite the application to use a NoSQL database in a single migration step
Why it's wrong here
Replacing MySQL with NoSQL in one step rewrites both the data model and application code simultaneously, adding migration risk without addressing component decoupling. Decoupling is achieved by introducing queues and managed compute tiers. A NoSQL move suits greenfield designs or workloads whose access patterns genuinely favour non-relational storage.
- ✓
Place an Application Load Balancer in front of the application
Why this is correct
An Application Load Balancer distributes HTTP/HTTPS traffic across multiple targets, directly satisfying the decoupling and scalability goals. It enables horizontal scaling by routing to an Auto Scaling group, removing the single-server bottleneck, and performs health checks to route around failed instances, which the legacy on-premises deployment could not achieve.
- ✓
Refactor the application into microservices and deploy on Amazon ECS with Fargate
Why this is correct
Refactoring into microservices directly satisfies the decoupling and scalability requirements. Amazon ECS with Fargate removes server management, letting each service scale independently rather than scaling the whole monolith. This addresses the stem's modernization goal, unlike lift-and-shift approaches that preserve the tightly coupled single-server architecture.
- ✗
Deploy the application on a single larger EC2 instance
Why it's wrong here
A single larger EC2 instance keeps the application monolithic on one server, so components remain coupled and scaling stays vertical. Decoupling requires splitting tiers across managed services such as SQS and Auto Scaling groups. A single instance suits lift-and-shift migrations where minimal change is the goal.
- ✓
Migrate the database to Amazon RDS for MySQL
Why this is correct
Migrating to Amazon RDS for MySQL preserves the existing MySQL engine, so no application query rewrite is needed, while offloading patching, backups and Multi-AZ failover to AWS. This satisfies the decoupling and scalability goal by removing the database from the single server, letting the application tier scale independently behind a managed endpoint.
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Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official Amazon Web Services exam blueprint
This SAP-C02 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Amazon Web Services certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the SAP-C02 exam.